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Linux tries to quiet the TurboHercules mob for IBM

By | April 8, 2010, 5:15am PDT

Summary: As I wrote yesterday, the issue here does not appear to be the Hercules emulator itself, but TurboHercules, which is seeking to profit from it. But is the IBM pledge one between equals, taken within an industry, or is it a concession only to hobbyists?

IBM’s apparent actions in the case of TurboHercules have caused enormous anger in the open source community.

Having been the target of angry people myself from time to time, I know such things can be hard to stop.

Fortunately, IBM seems to have a friend in Jim Zemlin (right), executive director of the Linux Foundation.

Zemlin yesterday gave IBM a chance to respond on his blog. Dan Frye, vice president of open systems development at IBM and a Linux Foundation board member, accepted it.

Frye wrote to Zemlin that the company’s 2005 pledge has not been violated. “IBM stands by this 2005 Non-Assertion Pledge today as strongly as it did then. IBM will not sue for the infringement of any of those 500 patents by any Open Source Software.”

Our friends at ZDNet UK did some follow-up and found a bit of qualification on the pledge from an IBM spokesman.

“In 2005, when IBM announced open access to 500 patents that we own, we said the pledge is applicable to qualified open-source individuals or companies,” said an IBM spokesperson. “We have serious questions about whether TurboHercules qualifies. TurboHercules is a member of organisations founded and funded by IBM competitors such as Microsoft to attack the mainframe. We have doubts about TurboHercules’ motivations.”

The old dangling qualifier trick, claims Alan Shimel of Network World., and Mueller, who started the controversy, agrees. Qualified is a word IBM can define for itself, he told our Tom Espiner.

As I wrote yesterday, the issue here does not appear to be the Hercules emulator itself, but TurboHercules, which is seeking to profit from it. But is the IBM pledge one between equals, taken within an industry, or is it a concession only to hobbyists?

IBM might indeed be right on the law here, but I still wonder how the community will react, and whether an over-reaction might hit IBM defenders like Zemlin. Once the mob starts marching it’s hard for even a sheriff to turn them away.

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Topics

IBM Corp., Linux, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983.

Disclosure

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a journalist, writer and part-time futurist for over 30 years.

At the present moment I run only a personal blog in addition to my ZDNet open source blog.

DanaBlankenhorn.Com has the subtitle The War Against Oil. In the past I have used it to write about political history, e-commerce, personal matters, some ideas related to open source, and The World of Always On, which is the idea of using sensors, motes and RFID to turn WiFi links into platforms for applications which live in the air.

My IRA account at Schwab holds a few tech shares, most notably some Intel and Applied Materials, but there are no open source companies in it. I don’t even own any CBS stock.

Biography

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for nearly 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the Interactive Age Daily for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age's "NetMarketing" supplement, and dozens of other publications over the years.

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RE: Linux tries to quiet the TurboHercules mob for IBM
efsane Updated - 25th Apr 2011
Great! !! thanks for sharing this information to us!
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View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
All animals are equal but some are more equal than others
honeymonster Updated - 8th Apr 2010
Or in this case, some are obviously less
equal than others.

You are licensed to use these patents. Ugh no, you
may infringe on these patents and we will not sue
you.

As long as you don't hurt our bottom line. Then
we'll sue.
0 Votes
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RE: Linux tries to quiet the TurboHercules mob for IBM
Loverock Davidson 8th Apr 2010
Sounds like just another reason for linux users to complain about something. They aren't happy unless they do. IBM said they aren't suing, no reason for linux people to get into a tizzy over it.
0 Votes
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Uh, but they are threatening to sue
DanaBlankenhorn 8th Apr 2010
The key point is they don't want the commercial
side of Hercules to exist. They're willing to have
the open source project, but monetizing it is in
violation of their patents, they claim.
0 Votes
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It runs on OSX and Windows, too, genius. And IBM say they'll sue.
AzuMao Updated - 8th Apr 2010
Why would Linux fanboys be upset over one of Microsoft's buddies being sued?

That doesn't even make any sense.
0 Votes
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This roughly resembles the strategy of MS ...
George Mitchell 8th Apr 2010
NO COMPANY in their right mind is going to go after home users or even small business users (SCO was NOT in their right mind). Old school companies like MS and IBM WILL,however, assert patents against competitors no matter what pledges have been made. That is just a fact of life. As long as we have software patents, this issue is going to remain. These companies live and breathe this stuff. They are always on the defense and occasionally on the offense. Software patents are, unfortunately the law of the land and as long as that is the case, all the open source covenants in the world aren't going to stop the litigation. If you use it for your own purposes or to make a small profit, you are likely safe, but if you get greedy you will attract the eyes of someone equally as greedy.
0 Votes
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What do you expect
Stan57 8th Apr 2010
What do you expect from a bunch of freeloaders?
0 Votes
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RE: Linux tries to quiet the TurboHercules mob for IBM
bigpicture 8th Apr 2010
In the business world there has to be revenue stream
and profit, that is just a fact of life. If a company
has inventions that can be given away to selected
parties at no cost (to the receiver OR THE GIVER)
because the receiver would not probably BUY the
product anyway and is in no way competing against the
giver. This results in simple good will and product advertising.

Then there are the parties who are in a position to
BUY this same product because it is of significant
business value to them. This is where the inventors
revenue stream and profit comes from. If another
party is interfering with that why should they be
allowed to have the same FREE RIDE status as the first
noted party? Would that not be plain and simple
business suicide. Muddled thinking does not seem to
be able to make the clear distinctions between
different situations. FREE must also have no cost to
the giver, as in revenue stream.
0 Votes
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We have inlaws, and we have outlaws
Ole Man 8th Apr 2010
We geeve somebody one of our toys. They use it to compete with our business, they aint no keessing cousin. We do not keess them, we keek their auss.
0 Votes
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IBM double standards.
zelrikriando 8th Apr 2010
It's OK to develop open source projects as long as it's
not financed by Microsoft and does not compete with us.

It's also not OK to violate our patents if you are
financed by MS or compete with us. Hobbyists are safe
though...

What a joke. Makes me puke.
0 Votes
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Meh.
bendib Updated - 8th Apr 2010
I was actually a bit worried about another SCO x 1,000 case, but if they aren't suing, I'm happy.
0 Votes
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RE: Linux tries to quiet the TurboHercules mob for IBM
cbbrowne 8th Apr 2010
I'm not overly surprised at IBM having an issue, here.

There has been a growth of projects weaseling around
with "dueling licenses":

"You could use an 'open source' version of our
software, but you probably really want to buy a
traditional proprietary license from us."

That's how MySQL(tm) was making licensing fees, by
selling versions licensed under a Traditional Not Open
Source Proprietary License, and the same is true for
quite a number of systems out there.

And folks that do that are being pretty weaselly about
it, claiming "open source goodness," but *really*
selling a traditional proprietary set of software. I'd
not expect an "open source non-assertion promise" to
apply to software that was being sold under a
traditional non-open-source license.

I don't know that this is what TurboHercules was up to
- a quick browse of their web site doesn't readily show
anything "for sale." Facts still need to emerge before
trying to conclude who's the "real weasel."

I'm a little suspicious of the recent IBM comment -
they pointed at, in effect, "organizational intent,"
which is a pretty muddy thing to try to evaluate
(particularly in the context of a public discussion of
the matter).

I'd have been rather more convinced had the IBM
statement been something more like: "We are not
attacking the Hercules project, which we agree is an
open source project. Unfortunately, TurboHercules is
selling non-open-source licenses, thereby disqualifying
themselves from the non-assertion commitment."
0 Votes
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IBM raises an important point
dsonnen@... 9th Apr 2010
IBM raises a good point. Their "open" IP could be used by competitors to attack IBM's core business. Does IBM have an obligation to let that happen?

What happens if open source conventions expose IBM, or any other company, to competitive attack? The obvious answer is that they will not contribute to open source and the OS community loses a significant source of open IP.

The OS community has to be open to the realities of competitive business.
0 Votes
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RE: Linux tries to quiet the TurboHercules mob for IBM
efsane Updated - 25th Apr 2011
Great! !! thanks for sharing this information to us!
sesli sohbet sesli chat

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